Gorges du Verdon

First things first, "breakfast included" is not that common in French hotels (but standard in B&Bs / maisons d'hôte): it is usually offered for an extra fee (ballpark 15€ for mid-range hotels outside of big cities). You'll find rates with breakfast included from time to time, but they are usually just the sum of the room rate + the price of the breakfast.

As for a base near the Gorges, it depends on your budget.

If you can afford it, the Château de Trigance is truly beautiful - but Trigance is barely a village, so it is quite isolated.

Otherwise, you have:

1. the touristy village of Moustiers-Sainte-Marie at the western end of the gorges. Many, many years ago, I enjoyed staying at La Bastide de Moustiers - reviews are still very good - and you'll find plenty of solid options there, usually not cheap though.
2. the smaller village of Castellane at the other end, significantly cheaper, never really stopped there.
3. La Palud sur Verdon right in the middle, but there's not much of a village there.
4. Aups, a bit further to the south, a lively town with several cheaper hotels in the ~€80/night range. I stayed at the Auberge de la Tour ~8 years ago, it wasn't the quietest room, but it was comfortable enough.

We stayed in Les Restanques De Moustiers in 2019. It was very nice. We booked directly. I see it has a 9.2 rating on booking.com, where you can read reviews and compare it to other options. We had breakfast in their very nice breakfast room, but I don’t recall if it was included.

Thanks for your feedback. I'll look at your recommendations and do some more research.

I'm adding that I think it's great that you plan to spend 2 nights. We only spent one night, and I would have loved a second night.

Thanks Barbara. We figured if we stayed only one night we wouldn't have a full day to explore the gorge. It looks beautiful!

The gorge is beautiful and Moustiers Ste-Marie is charming. With one night we only had time to visit the village and drive along the south side of the gorge. We didn’t have time to linger near the lake, drive along the north side, etc. I see Trigance mentioned by another poster. We stopped there on our drive from the gorge to Nice because the hotel staff recommended it. We were there in early June and it was pleasant and very quiet—definitely remote.

We had a lovely 3 day stay at the Auberge du Point Sublime in 2016. This is in Rougon, a tiny little village at the east end of the gorge. It is across the road from Point Sublime, one of the most spectacular viewpoints in the gorge. Meals at the inn's restaurant were quite good. Moustiers-Sainte-Marie is about 30 km away, and definitely worth a visit. Very pretty. But it is quite crowded during the daytime.

One important warning: the roads in this area are quite narrow. There are few guardrails, and precipitous drops into the gorge. I recommend using the smallest car that will fit your group and their luggage, and not driving after dark.

We stayed at Hotel Le Colombier last April. It was not very busy as their season was just beginning; short walk into the village; very nice rooms; plentiful breakfast. We rented one of the electric boats to explore the gorge. We really enjoyed the area.

Hi Julian. Thanks for the information about the roads. Our group consists of four women. We'll be attending a wedding in Tourtour before we go to Gorges du Verdon so we'll be packing more than we normally do. A small car will be difficult. I guess our driving will be limited.

PattiK, we wanted a small rental car, but all they had for us was a medium sized SUV. We were fine driving along the Gorge, although we only went from West to East on the south side of the gorge, so we were on the inside lane. We just took our time. In late May or early June, traffic was not bad. I hope that would also be the case in October, especially if you will be there on weekdays.

Edited to add that you might also check with your lodging to see if there are any affordable tours out of Moustiers.